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Magik
Characteristics *Height- 5'5" *Weight- 120 lbs *Eyes- blue *Hair- blonde History Origin Illyana Rasputin (born Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina) was born in the Ust-Ordynski Collective farm, near Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union to Nikolai Rasputin and his wife Alexandra Natalya Rasputina. Illyana's two older brothers, Mikhail Nikolaievitch Rasputin and Piotr "Peter" Nikolaievitch Rasputin were both mutants. The X-Men suspected Illyana to be a mutant as well, but they figured that years would pass until her adolescence and the emergence of any possible powers. They were wrong in this hypothesis, however. Peter's superhuman powers manifested while saving Illyana from a runaway tractor. Abductions When she was six years old, Illyana was abducted and brought to the United States by Arcade, who used her and several other hostages to coerce the X-Men to assist him in opposing Doctor Doom. She was rescued and brought back to the X-Mansion. Shortly thereafter, Illyana was kidnapped again, this time to the Limbo dimension by Belasco and S'ym, inhabitants of this demon dimension. She was raised there and a portion of her essence/soul was corrupted by Belasco, who sought to claim her soul to be used as a key to bring forth the Elder Gods to rule Earth. In order to free himself, Belasco needed to fill the Beatrix Medallion with five bloodstones. The blood stones would be created by corrupting Illyana's soul, a new stone appearing the more corrupt she becomes. However, Illyana was later rescued and tutored in the practice of white magic by that dimension's version of Storm (who turned to magic when her mutant powers waned) and eventually rebelled against Belasco. Finding the use of magic abhorrent, Limbo's version of Shadowcat kidnapped and trained Illyana in hand to hand combat and sword in combat. Cat along with Illyana attempted to storm Belasco's citadel and kill him after the combat trainings. They were overwhelmed by Belasco, who further transformed Cat into a more feline demonic creature. With Illyana back under his watch, Belasco was able to instruct her in the art of black magic in hopes it would corrupt her soul more. However, Illyana covertly plotted Belasco's defeat and continued to resist the dark influence on her soul. Before he had kidnapped Illyana, Belasco used both Storm and Shadowcat as potential gateways to freeing the Elder Gods by manipulating their souls with his evil. Both refused his magic before the process could be completed. Because of this, Illyana formed a mystical bond between both Storm and Kitty once she too was used in the same manner. Belasco was successful in using Illyana to create three parts of the bloodstone pendant and only needed two more in order to bring forth the Elder Gods. Realizing this, Illyana created the Soulsword and took over limbo as its new ruler. During her battle with Belasco, she magically developed horns, a tail and fangs. She discovered that these new features only appear when she held the Soulsword. After winning the battle, she banished Belasco from Limbo and claimed S'ym as her servant. She then managed to return to Earth several years older, although no time had passed on Earth since her kidnapping, and subsequently joined the New Mutants. Mystic Arcana Former New Mutants scribe Louise Simonson's one-shot "Time Trial" features Illyana Rasputin and Egyptian sorceress Ashake, with minor appearances by Danielle Moonstar, alias Mirage, of the New Mutants and Egyptian necromancer Heka-Nut. The story takes place during the events of New Mutants #32, during which Magik misguides one of her teleportation discs through the space-time continuum and strands the pair in ancient Egypt. Mirage and Magik are immediately beset by guards but rescued by Ashake, who reveals herself to be the grandmother of Ororo Munroe, alias Storm, though many generations removed. While Mirage sleeps under the cover of an invisibility spell, nercromancer Heka-Nut captures Ashake and Magik and forces them to retrieve a mystical artifact called the "Sword of Bone," with which he intends to pursue his own selfish ends. After retrieving the Sword of Bone, Magik disrupts Heka-Nut with her Soulsword, and severs him from his mystical energy; Ashake bottles Heka-Nut's energy in a canopic jar given to her by Egyptian goddess Ma'at. Ashake returns the Sword of Bone to its hiding place under the watch Ma'at's sphinx servant Ammut and swears to hide Heka-Nut's bottled energy, while Magik and Mirage return home (with Dani's memory of the incident erased). "In 'The Mystic Arcana Book I: Air,' readers are introduced to a very special deck of Tarot cards The First Tarot. The cards are magically connected with the world around them and they magically transform to represent the "real person" (i.e. Marvel character) that most embodies that particular card". Inferno Over time, a strange armor began to appear on her body each time she wielded the Soulsword, which, much like her brother Colossus, gave her a form of invulnerability and increased strength. The armor appeared only on one of her shoulders and arms at first, but gradually began appearing on more of her body with each time that she wielded the sword. During the "Inferno" storyline, a routine trip-through Limbo went awry, leaving the New Mutants stuck in Limbo. Illyana's demonic nature began to completely overtake her body and the demons pressed her to become the full and true lord of their realm. Her effort to escape provided the demon N'astirh the opportunity to open a colossal teleportation disc between Earth and Limbo, which triggered an invasion of Earth by demons from Limbo. Towards the end of this ordeal the seven-year old Illyana was seen in some part of timeless Limbo. Magik made a supreme effort, which defeated S'ym. Afterwards, when the New Mutants examined the husk of Magik's armor they found the seven-year-old Illyana inside it. She still possessed the bloodstone locket Belasco gave to her, implying that she still had ties to Limbo. The New Mutants' best guess as to what happened was that by forcibly removing her seven-year old self from Limbo, before she had been corrupted by Belasco, then everything since then had been negated and none of it had happened, except that they still had their memories of the teenage Illyana who had not existed and of events which had not happened. Because of the mystic bond she shared with the Kitty Pryde from the Limbo dimension, the Soulsword then passed on to Earth's Kitty Pryde in England. It embedded itself into a stone near Excalibur's lighthouse headquarters, waiting for Kitty to claim it and become its new wielder. She rejected it out of fear she would become a twisted dark image of herself, just as Illyana had. Seeing how much its presence bothered her friend Kitty, Rachel Summers attempted to remove it from the bedrock with the powers of the Phoenix Force but could not move it, because, Kitty guessed, it would only move upon her command. It stayed embedded in England until it eventually fell into the hands of the supervillain Doctor Doom, who shortly thereafter lost it to the demon Darkoth. It eventually was acquired by Amanda Sefton, who would become the new Magik, and then go on to be ruler of Limbo and wielder of the Soulsword. Illyana, still a child, returned to Russia where she lived with her parents for some months until they were murdered by the Russian government in order to secure Illyana's abilities to defeat a psionic being known as the Soul Skinner. Illyana then returned to the X-Mansion to live with her brother Piotr and the other X-Men. Legacy Virus and death Not long afterwards, Illyana contracted the Legacy Virus, and finally succumbed to it and died in the X-Mansion, despite all efforts in order to save her made by Charles Xavier and Moira McTaggert. Not being able to be there for his sister, Colossus, consumed by grief and rage, betrayed the X-Men and joined the Acolytes right after her burial in Siberia. Her spirit however contacted both Wolverine and Piotr from the afterlife. She came to Logan shortly after he had the adamantium pulled from his body, and urged him to return to the world of the living to save Jean Grey. Illyana's spirit returned again, this time to her brother Piotr, who had recently returned to the X-Men and the United States with Kitty and Nightcrawler following the disbanding of Excalibur. When investigating odd occurrences inside the Mansion, Piotr located one of stepping disks that Illyana had magically bound to the school. He found himself transported to a pocket world, which held a memory imprint of Illyana. There Piotr manages to learn how to let go a little more and to move on with his life, while still remembering his sister. Despite this, Illyana's memory convinced him to make one final sacrifice. When the cure for the Legacy Virus turned out to need the death of one mutant, he secretly and willingly gave his life, so nobody else would have to die like Illyana did. Colossus would later be resurrected by an alien race. In addition, when Colossus visited Breakworld it was mentioned by Danger that the "magic bullet" headed towards Earth held Illyana's genetic signature. Return After finally overthrowing Amanda Sefton as leader, Belasco returned to his previous position as ruler of Limbo. He created a powerful spell to return Illyana to him after seeing her reappear during the House of M crossover event. The spell managed to pull forth the remaining essence and memories of Illyana still held within Limbo's dimension. The essence took shape and became the Darkchylde. Unfortunately, Belasco was not satisfied with his creation, claiming that it was not the true Illyana Rasputin (due to her lack of Illyana's soul) and banished her to the outer parts of Limbo. The newly reborn Darkchylde eventually found some of the New X-Men who became separated from their teammates and were being attacked by a horde of demons. Although she aided the mutants against the demons, she later used a spell to immobilize them in an attempt at stealing a portion of Pixie's soul to create both a bloodstone and a new Soulsword as Illyana felt Pixie had the most innocent of souls present. The spell was interrupted by Anole, who broke free from Illyana's confinement and punched her away. Pixie's soul extraction was partially successful however, creating one part of a bloodstone pendant and a soul dagger. Illyana then attempted to complete the process and destroy those who wished to interfere, but a reformed Rockslide stopped her and continued to assault her. During the beating, Illyana's human memories of her friends and life among the X-Men seemingly returned to her. Although only a part of Pixie's soul was taken, Illyana then informed the other students that Pixie was now capable of performing magic, the hole in her soul having been filled with "black magic." She taught Pixie a simple teleportation spell, since Belasco sealed his castle from her own magic and powers, and the young mutants made an attack on Belasco. During this battle Illyana displayed that she still has the ability to cover her entire body in armor at will. Belasco was soundly defeated by the combined efforts of Illyana (using a bloodstone amulet) and the Xavier student body. Illyana then gave into her Darkchylde persona and announced her desire to create several more bloodstones in order to become god-like in power. Before Illyana could begin the process, however, she was interrupted by the arrival of her brother, Colossus, who questions if his "Little Snowflake" has indeed returned to life. In a cry of pain and desperation, Illyana sent everyone back to Earth, rejecting Piotr's offer of help. Illyana then reclaimed the throne of Limbo with S'ym and N'astirh as her servants, and informs them that her next move is to reclaim her soul. Divided We Stand Illyana is in her castle and recounts how she was an impatient child and plots to get her soul back. At first she plans on using her Bloodstone medallion but decides against it because it has ruined so many lives and refuses to follow in the footsteps of Belasco. Motivated by her relationships with Kitty and Piotr, she tries to reclaim her soul through love and teleports to the Xavier Institute only to find it destroyed and abandoned. Feeling sad and angry, she declares that she will not get her soul back through love but through suffering and will target those who have wronged her and make them pay with their souls. X-Infernus While in Limbo, Darkchylde attacks various other demons looking for her Bloodstone amulet, becoming enraged when referred to by her human name. Her conquest is noticed by Mephisto, Blackheart, Satannish, Dormammu and Hela. Belasco's daughter, Witchfire appears during the meeting and reveals she is now the current owner of the Illyana's Bloodstone amulet and vows to take her father's place as ruler of Limbo. Back at the X-Men's base in San Francisco, Pixie attacks Nightcrawler with her soul dagger and accidentally discovers where Magik's Soulsword is hidden — inside Nightcrawler. After releasing it, Darkchylde teleports in, ready to reclaim it. Pixie engages her in combat, refusing to hand over the Soulsword and demanding the bloodstone forged from her soul. Darkchylde easily defeats her and reclaims her sword, transforming into her Magik persona. However, Magik strikes Colossus when he sees her and calls out to her, realizing that something is wrong when she doesn't feel any emotions. She returns to Limbo telling her brother he can't save her, she has to save herself. Upon to her return to Limbo, she discovers that Witchfire has conquered Limbo and Magik's armies during her absence. Witchfire engages her in combat, determined to destroy her. Witchfire claims everything Belasco ever owned, including Magik's soul, belongs to her. Magik is defeated and her Bloodstone is taken. Witchfire adds this to her amulet and captures Illyana. After the X-Men arrive at the castle, Kurt notices Illyana chained to a pillar. She asks him to stab her with Pixie's soul dagger, as he is the only one who is attuned to magic. She apologizes and he stabs her. In doing so he re-releases the Soulsword inside of her. Meanwhile, Witchfire completes the set of Bloodstones via another portion of Pixie's soul and releases the Elder Gods. Illyana then teams-up with the other mutants to hold back Witchfire and the Elder Gods. Using a combination of magic and the powers of the Soulsword and Souldagger, Illyana and Pixie are able to remove one of Pixie's bloodstones. Because of this, the Elder Gods are swept back to their dimension, along with Witchfire and the remaining bloodstones. Pixie's bloodstone that was removed by Illyana and Pixie then merges with Pixie's Souldagger. Angry that her second bloodstone is still in the possession of Witchfire, Pixie then declares her hatred for Illyana. Saddened by the loss of her and Pixie's remaining bloodstones, Illyana teleports the mutants back to the X-Base and is about to exile herself to Limbo. Before she can do so, her various former teammates beg for her to stay with them. It is Cyclops, however, who reminds her that they are a family and that, with so few mutants left, they need her. Colossus then steps forward and begs her not to leave and hurt him again. She reluctantly agrees. Reforming the New Mutants After receiving an anonymous tip in Colorado about a young mutant endangering a small town, Dani and Shan are sent to investigate and calm the locals. During their mission, Magik reappears back at the X-Men's base in San Francisco after teleporting off into the future after the events of "X-Infernus". Upon her return, the younger mutants are still very distrustful of her and after a brief argument she informs Sam and Roberto that Shan and Dani are in trouble and it will result in their deaths. Sam assembles a team consisting of himself, Sunspot, Magma and Magik to go find Dani and Shan. When questioned about his roster request, Sam replies that there is bad blood between Illyana and the younger mutants because they don't trust her, but he does. Illyana seems to have undergone a personality change since her return from the future, becoming more detached emotionally in most cases, possibly due to the further loss of most of her soul during "X-Infernus". While en route, Illyana asks Magma questions about her visits to Empath since he tried to kill her friends and asks if she still loves him. Magma just says he's blind and helpless and Illyana offers to cure him. Magma stumbles to answer and Magik accuses her of liking him that way but will help him if she asks, saying it can be their little secret. While searching for Shan and Dani in Colorado, the girls split up because Illyana feels sorry for a lost little girl. Sam and Roberto come across a tied up and unconscious Shan in the back of a bar. Meanwhile Magik and Magma are tricked into freeing Legion from a box. Legion, who now has absorbed dozens of personalities, has gone further insane and absorbed Shan's mind while on a vendetta against Dani for her part in one of his previous defeats. When Cannonball decides to locate Legion in order to bring him to Emma Frost, Illyana ignores his orders and enters Legion's mind by using Shan's mind as a bridge and begins killing all of Legion's split personalities in order to locate Shan. After locating Shan in Legion's mind, they team up with Marci and David Haller to find the doll that controls his body. After the doll is found, Magik and the others are returned to their bodies. Utopia During the protests between anti-mutant and pro-mutant movements about mutant reproductive rights, Illyana is seen watching the news coverage along with most of the other X-Men. Later, Cyclops sends her to team up (unknowingly) with X-Force to locate Wolverine and teleport them to Alcatraz to rescue any mutants taken prisoner by Norman Osborns forces. Along with Pixie, they teleport all the X-Men from San Francisco to their new home, Utopia. In the aftermath of Utopia, Karma and Illyana goes to see Kavita Rao where they inform her of what went on in Legion's mind. When Kavita mistakes Marci for one of Legion's personalities, Shan corrects her and reveals that Marci was a real person, but when she exited his mind, Legion revealed Marci doesn't have a body to return to and explains how his powers work. Karma reveals that one of Legion's personalities killed her after she bought Legion water and played together when he got back from the Age of Apocalypse. Feeling angry, Illyana offers her Soulsword to Shan who kills him, telling Shan it will be their little secret. However, Shan lies to Kavita about what happened as does Magik, both claiming Magik killed him. Hellbound When Cable returns to the present timeline with Hope Summers in tow, Illyana is dispatched along with a group of other X-Men to retrieve the pair and return them to the safety of the island nation of Utopia. Unfortunately, Bastion's forces nearly kill the trio in an explosion, but Illyana manages to take the brunt of the attack. Before she can use magic to mend herself, Illyana is dragged into Limbo via a stepping disc by demons, much to Colossus's dismay. The next day, Colossus confronts Cyclops, and demands that he be allowed to rescue his sister. Cyclops declines his request, explaining that he needs him by his side, and that he has already ordered Cannonball to form a team of X-Men to retrieve the teleporter from the hellish dimension. They include Northstar, Anole, Pixie, Trance, Dazzler, and Gambit. Although some of the mutants are more willing to help than others, they are all teleported to Limbo thanks to the spell Magik taught Pixie during the events of Quest For Magik. They are quickly attacked by the monstrous hordes belonging to the demon N'astirh, and Gambit succumbs to the realm's evil mystical influence, once again becoming Death. Powers and Abilities Powers Stepping Discs: ability to mentally control "stepping discs", which allowed her to teleport from one location to another, which are part of a dimension known as Limbo in the Marvel Universe. This dimension is specifically known alternately as "Demonic Limbo", "Limbo-Belasco", or "Otherplace". However, when Illyana mentally calls for a Stepping Disc she must use Limbo as a midway point before she can teleport to an alternate location. It is not known if she was genetically predetermined to travel through Limbo, or if she did so because, having been spirited there as a child, it was the alternate dimension she was instinctively aware of. Magik has succeeded in teleporting herself across continents, from one continent to another, and even interplanetary and intergalactic distances on occasion. Apparently she can mentally scan Limbo while on Earth in order to locate whoever she wishes to teleport from Limbo down to her on Earth. Unlike most other teleporters in the Marvel Universe, Magik could teleport through time as well as space. She has teleported moments, days or centuries into the past or future. Especially early on, she had difficulty modulating this ability and would often inadvertently travel through time and space when intending to teleport only through space. Magik was told by Dr. Strange that she had potential for great feats of manipulating time on a wider scale. Sorcery: Magik is the sorceress supreme of her limbo dimension. The extent of her powers there are all powerful, and powerful demons of Limbo did not dare challenge her. Magik can probably cast any magic spell that Belasco could, having had access to his store of sorcerous knowledge. Her sorcery was a unique mix of black magic that she learned from Belasco and white magic she was taught by an alternative-reality Ororo Munroe. On one occasion she was shown to have easily inhibited the powers of The Enchantress while in Limbo despite The Enchantress being a powerful sorceress in her own right. On Earth she is limited to these powers: *'Astral Projection' *'Mystical Sense:' ability to detect mystical presences. *'Simple Spells' *'Summon Soulsword ' Limbo Control: Magik’s Limbo, also known as Otherplace, was not a void as such, but rather a small pocket dimension that is tenuously connected to True Limbo where time does not pass in a physical sense and as a result no one can age or die. The matter within Magik’s Limbo could be shaped and transformed by the thoughts and emotions of the sorcerer who is its master. *''Mystical Armor: The more that Magik uses her magical power on any occasion, the more mystical armor appears on her body. The nature and origin of this armor is as yet unknown. Along with the armor, Magik’s appearance would become more demonic including horns, hooves or a tail. The mystical armor is a natural power of whoever rules in Limbo. '''Psionic Shields': she has impenetrable psionic shields, most likely a result of the time she spent in Limbo and the effects of her partially demonic soul. As such even powerful telepaths such as Charles Xavier, Emma Frost and Rachel Summers could not mentally read Illyana's thoughts or sense her psionically. Abilities Highly skilled in the black magic of Limbo granted by the patron of Belesco Chthon as well as white magic of Earth granted by the patron of Storms lineage Oshtar. Illyana is also highly skilled in ancient weaponry, typically axes and swords. Even without her Soul Sword, she led an attack on hordes of rebelling demons using only an axe without suffering any injuries and succeeding in quelling their rebellion. Strength level Normal human female with moderate regular exercise. Weaknesses Mystical Limitations: Magik's magical abilities are far more limited in Earth's dimension. Dark Half: However, use of dark magic could also trigger a demonic 'Darkchylde' form. Stepping Disk Burden: The farther she travels the less control she has. If she doesn't concentrate while teleporting she can inadvertently teleport through time as well as space. Going through time is far worse than simply traversing space; after such jaunts she is psychically drained and must regain her strength before attempting another great teleport. Magik has sense honed this ability and no longer has difficulty differentiating time and space with vast jumps. Paraphernalia Transportation Stepping Discs Weapons The Soulsword Notes *The New Mutants' encounter with Mikhail Rasputin was retroactively added in the miniseries 'Truth or Death'. It supposedly takes place between New Mutants #25 and #26. She first appeared as magik in New Mutants. *Mikhail is the one that set up the infection of Illyana with the legacy virus, as an attempt to save her from it. Trivia *"Ilyana" is the feminine of the Russian masculine name "Ilya," neither of which has an English equivalent. *Illyana has a stuffed doll called "Bamfy" which looks like Nightcrawler. Category:Characters Category:Mutants Category:Female Characters Category:New Mutants Category:Utopians Category:Alpha Level Mutant Category:X-Men